As an emerging trans-disciplinary field, the operational use of historical criminology is a largely under-studied area. Examination of the use of archival research in studying cases connected to Gannon and Gilbertson’s Smiley Face murders theory indicates that there is clear potential for historical criminology to be used to revisit closed or cold investigations to determine if the official findings of the case are consistent with the evidence. In the case of the Smiley Face murders theory, taking a historical criminology approach has failed to prove the hypothesis of researchers; nevertheless, use of historical research methods has had some success in forcing a re-evaluation of several cases, and should be considered an important tool in future investigations of this nature.

作为一个新兴的跨学科领域，历史犯罪学的实际运用是一个研究不足的领域。对档案研究在研究与Gannon和Gilbertson的Smiley Face谋杀理论有关的案件中的使用情况的调查表明，历史犯罪学有明显的潜力可用于重新审视封闭或冷酷的调查，以确定案件的正式调查结果与证据。以笑脸谋杀理论为例，采用历史犯罪学方法并不能证明研究人员的假设。但是，历史研究方法的使用在强制重新评估几个案例方面取得了一些成功，应被视为今后进行这种性质调查的重要工具。